FINE
by CSI Ana Lee
Summary: I'm going to be "evil" and not give ya'll a full summary. However, based on the epi "The 34th Floor." Oh, and did I mention JO GOES BACK TO DC!


F.I.N.E.

Summary: I'm going to be "evil" and not give ya'll a full summary. I will tell you though that Jo goes back to DC! You just gotta read the rest to find out!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anything…cause if I did, I would have done everything to convince Melina to STAY!

A/N: Main notes at the end, but, make sure you pay attention to who's POV it is. I switch a lot in this fic! Oh, and btw, the italicized words in this fic are flashbacks, but ya'll should already know that!

**Detective Lindsay Monroe Messer's POV**

As I stand on this platform, looking out at the people who had become my friends and family, my heart stirs with two emotions. Love for my husband and beautiful daughter, and for the rest of the team who have given me their constant support. But it is the second emotion, the one that threatens to overtake the love, that is causing my heart pain. Anguish. As my gaze travels over everyone's faces, I feel tears come to my eyes as they rest on the empty seat next to Flack. That seat should not be empty. That seat should be occupied by the woman I trust most in the world. By the woman who calls me "kiddo." By the woman my daughter calls "Granma." But there it is, empty, with the supposed occupant running her own lab in New Orleans.

I'm brought back to the present as Mac walks towards me and places the Combat Cross around my neck, but as soon as I feel the weight of it, the flashbacks start.

_BANG!_

_The gun in my hand fires the fatal shot that ends Shane Casey's life._

_I hear the terrified screams of my daughter and see the horrified look on my husband's face._

_I see the flashing lights and feel the medics taking my blood pressure and heart rate._

_I watch as Mac heads my way and feel safe as this father figure wraps me in a comforting hug._

_I see Stella drive up and race to Danny and Lucy's sides. I see her pick up my daughter, hold her close, and lay her hand on my husband's face, comforting him, asking him where I am._

_I see my beloved point to me and Mac._

_I feel Mac pull away as Stella wraps Lucy and me in her arms. I see tears of relief run down her angelic face._

_Yet I cry no tears of my own._

Mac grasps my hand, pulling me from the past. I hear him say he's proud of me, but when I look at his eyes and see the pain there, I cannot feel happiness. The months without the one we all adore have been hardest on the one who loves her.

**Detective Stella Bonasera's POV**

I turn on my computer and log into the New York 1 website. As I'm waiting for the news to come up, I laugh at the irony of the situation. When I lived in New York, I hardly ever watched the news. Now, I watch NY1 whenever I get the chance. But today…today I have a different reason for watching. Today is Lindsay's ceremony, and it's being televised. My heart aches at not being able to be there; I still can't believe I left, but at least I'll get to see her receive her honor.

As I watch, my eyes fill with tears. The camera pans over the many faces in the crowd, and as I see familiar ones, the tears spill over. The view is switched to the platform holding two people who are extremely precious to me, and the pounding in my heart startles me. So does the look of despair on both their faces; happiness is what I expected, anguish I am unprepared for.

The tears on my face are streaming down rapidly, but I make no effort to wipe them away. I can only think, 'I've done this. My leaving is the reason for their tears!'

I'd kept in touch through letters to Linds, but she had told me everything was fine. Everything has NOT been fine. I should have realized she was trying to protect me; she knew I struggled with my decision to leave. I turn off the computer screen, unable to watch any more. I think about the letters and emails Lindsay had sent. She had always ended saying that she was fine, that Mac was fine, that everyone was fine.

"Oh my god!"

The sound of my voice startles me, but the realization of what Lindsay had really been trying to say made my heart ache. I should never have left.

"FINE. Feelings Inside Not Expressed. Oh god what have I done. I'm coming kiddo!"

**Detective Mac Taylor's POV**

I'm proud of this young woman in front of me. I've seen her mature into a beautiful wife and mother, and watched her become a dedicated and talented CSI. However, I know how hard these last few months have been on her, and Stella's leaving has only made it worse. As Lindsay lifts her eyes to mine, I see the deep pain that she is desperately trying to hide; the pain that I know is echoed in my own eyes. I had lost my rock, my anchor, my best friend. But more importantly, I lost the woman who I loved more than anything in the world, and I had never told her.

**Agent Josephine Danville's POV**

I walk a bit cautiously into the eerily silent New York Crime Lab.

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

Thinking it a bit strange that no one is here, I walk further into the lab and stop suddenly when I see the bloody handprint on the glass wall.

"What?"

I laugh a bit at this practical joke that has seemingly been played on me, but that all stops when I realize that this is a real DB, and not a joke.

**Mac Taylor's POV**

I walk into my lab, and with a frustrating sigh, hit the  
"end" button on my phone. I finally get the courage to call Stella, and she doesn't pick up.

"Hi… I'm Jo… Danville… and this girl is dead."

I look at the face of the person speaking and then at the body at her feet, and I feel a horrified look appear on my face. But to be honest, I'm not sure which situation is worse; finding a DB in the lab or having the reality of Stella's leaving hit me with the face of the person who is to be her "replacement" I laugh darkly to myself. As if Stella could ever be replaced.

**Lindsay Messer's POV**

I'm sitting on a couch in my therapist's office and all I can think about is getting the hell out of here.

"You've been coming to see me for five months, Lindsay, and I know next to nothing about you."

I take a deep breath to keep myself from calling this woman a bitch. But when I answer, there is still wrath on my voice.

"I've come to you because it's department procedure. You know that I saved my family from the bad guy by killing him, and that I'd do it all over again if I had to. As far as I'm concerned, we're done here."

I leave the room as fast as I can. If I were thinking rationally, I would have known that the therapist meant well, but in my current state, I didn't care. The only person I really want to talk to is the one who abandoned me, my family, Mac, and the rest of the team. I throw my medal in the trash, wishing desperately that I could really talk to Stella about what I'm going through, but she left. I'm busy pushing the pain deep inside as I walk out the precinct door.

**Stella Bonasera's POV**

As I claim my luggage at the JFK airport, I check my phone for messages: two from the lab in NO and the other from Mac. I'm surprised at the latter one; since I moved, we've had limited contact. I'm glad though, that I missed his call, because if I had answered it, I knew I would have broken down on the phone. "You're close," I tell myself as I hail a cab, "just wait until you're at the lab to talk to the people you love."

**Jo Danville's POV**

I walk into my new office and notice a beautiful young woman reading a piece of paper.

"Hi," I say as she casts a look my way. "I'm Jo Danville."

"Lindsay Messer."

She says nothing more as she pulls a wrapped gift out of the brown postal box. I watch silently as tears form in her eyes as she looks at the picture that has been wrapped. She stars at it until I break the silence.

"Are you okay?" She looks up, startled.

"Yeah…um…no…sorry." She rushes out of the office and heads towards the elevator, passing Mac who looks at me in confusion. I shrug my shoulders as he walks into the room.

"She started tearing up when she opened the package." I say as I point to the one sitting on her desk. I watch as Mac Taylor silently picks up both the letter and the picture frame and am amazed to see him struggling not to display the emotions I see enter his eyes. When he, too, leaves the room in the same direction as Detective Lindsay Messer, my curiosity overwhelms me and I pick up the picture frame.

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you are afraid. ~ Franklin B. Jones."

Now I am really confused, that is, until I look at the return address and realize who the package is from. Only a name to me, but from what I know and have learned, the heart and soul of this lab before she left.

**Lindsay Messer's POV**

I'm standing on the roof feeling quite safe in my husband's arms. My mind is also calm because of both Mac and Danny's words. Mac called me a warrior and told me warrior's survive. Danny called me his hero because I saved our daughter's life. I'm starting to heal, but I still feel Stella's absence keenly.

**Stella Bonasera's POV**

I walk into the NYCL and immediately feel at home, something I have not felt for four and a half months. Though I recognize several lab techs, I do not see any of the ones I desperately need to be with. As I continue on to Mac's office, I am stopped by a brunette woman I have never seen before.

"Hi, I'm Detective Danville, can I help you?"

"Yes," I answer with a chill in my voice. I don't even know this woman but there is something about her that makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. "Do you know where Mac Taylor is?"

"I haven't seen him in a while, is there anything I can do for you?"

"No thanks, I'll just be waiting in his office." I leave her behind with a slightly flabbergasted look on her face as I walk into the office that is more familiar to me than my own. The door was open but I turn around to shut it. I walk around the room, closing the blinds on the windows that look out into the lab, knowing that Mac and I will need time for a conversation without prying eyes. Once my task is completed, I walk to the window and look out at the city I have longed for for the past few months.

**Jo Danville's POV**

Never in one day have I had so many shocks. I'm still standing in the middle of the hallway staring after the curly-headed woman who walked with such confidence into Detective Taylor's office. My mind is coming up with two possibilities. One, she's Mac's girlfriend and can stay (though this option seems highly unlikely, or two, I need to call security because she's not supposed to be here. I'm leaning towards option two when Mac steps out of the elevator.

"Mac!"

"Yes?" 

"Do you have a girlfriend?" His face gets all funny as I ask him this.

"No. Why?" his tone is clipped, but I continue.

"Because, a curly-headed woman just walked into your office like she belonged there." His gaze traveled to his office and his eyebrows lifted in surprise at the closed blinds.

"I can call security if you…"

I stop abruptly as Mac quickly walks to his office.

"Okay then, I'll just, go back to work I guess."

I walk towards my office, my mind going a mile a minute at what could be going on.

**Mac Taylor's POV**

I left Jo standing in the middle of lab as I walked towards my office, hoping against hope that the curly headed woman in my office is the Greek goddess I am in love with.

**Stella Bonasera's**

In the window's reflection, I see Mac walk into his office and hear the sharp intake of his breath. I don't move; my courage vanishes. 'What if he tells me everyone has moved on?' … 'What if…what if…what if?' My mind races with a million scenarios. 'What if I can never regain what I've lost?'

My heart is pounding as the man I love comes and stands directly behind me. We're not touching, but I can feel every emotion radiating from his body.

**Mac Taylor's POV**

My mind is in complete confusion as I stand behind Stella. I take a deep breath, and breathe in the scent that I have missed terribly, the scent that is purely Stella. I so desperately want to take her into my arms, kiss her, and tell her I love her; beg her to stay and never leave me again. But I clench my fists. If she is here only for a visit, then I must keep my feelings to myself. My resolve nearly comes undone, though, when she whispers my name with pain thick in her angelic voice.

**Stella Bonasera's POV**

"Mac," I whisper.

"Before you say anything else, tell me how long you're staying." Tears come to my eyes as I hear the harshness in his voice, but I know I deserve it. I only hope he will be able to forgive me.

"I'm not going back. I can't be away from you or the team any longer."

I hear his breath leave him in a rush and feel his hands come up and massage the tension out of my shoulders, and I sigh.

"Can you forgive me for leaving?"

He doesn't answer, and my heart drops into my stomach. Several minutes go by before I sigh, rebuild the walls around my heart, and say softly, "I'll leave you be then."

But as I turn to look at his handsome face one more time before I go, I find myself locked in his arms.

**Mac Taylor's POV**

I can't find the words to tell Stella not to leave, so I pull her into my arms, my embrace hopefully telling her what words can not. I'm relieved when she slips her arms around my waist and holds on to me as tightly as I am holding on to her. I pull back slightly to look into her magnificant green eyes and get lost. I read pain and love, and know she is reading the same emotions in mine.

I move my hands up to cup her face and when I ask the question I desperately need and answer to, my voice is thick with emotion.

"Are you really here to stay?"

**Stella Bonasera's POV**

"Yes, Mac, these months apart from everything here in NY has shown me the things that I can't live without. I'm not going anywhere for a long time."

I see flames light up in his eyes right before he leans down and kisses me with the sweetest kiss I have ever known.

**Detective Danny Messer's POV**

I literally feel my eyes pop when I see my boss and his best friend kissing in his office. A smile lights my face as I turn around and face the lab.

"BOOM!"

Lindsay, Hawkes, Adam, Sid, Flack, Jo, and several other lab techs look at me like I've grown another head, but that's okay.

"I," I say, my voice rising dramatically, "am now the proud owner of $2000."

"Danny?" I hear my wife ask as she comes and stands at my side. "What are you saying?"

I laugh a heartly laugh. Suddenly, everything seems brighter, like a fog has been lifted.

"I believe every one of you here remembers what the highest bet we have going is…pay up!"

"Danny…" Hawkes starts, a grin lighting up his face. "That means…"

"Yep. Just take a look in the office with the closed blinds!"

We all turn our heads as Mac and Stella walk out of his offices with smiles none of us have seen in months.

"Stell?" Linds says hesitantly, and I know she's asking more with her eyes.

"I'm here to stay, kiddo." I laugh with happiness as my wife rushes to embrace the person who has finally returned to our fold.

"Group hug," Stella says joyously, and I join the rest of the team as we all gather around her. I notice Jo Danville standing off to one side looking a bit left out. I can't help but rub it in a bit as I call out to her.

"Well, Jo… sorry to say this, but, uh…it looks like you're out of a job!"

A/N: So, I had originally wanted this posted before last weeks episode, but my computer is slowly crashing and doesn't work all of the time. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Linds' feelings are reflecting a bit on my own, as I am terribly devastated that MK has left us hanging! I'm also boiling mad because I read some spoilers saying that Sela Ward is a fan of Mac and JO getting together! NO FRICKIN WAY! I thought I'd give her a break and see how she was before judging and comparing her to Stella, but NO WAY! And what was with her when she yelled at Adam last week? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know she was trying to get him to open up, but our Stell would never do that… Anyway, enough venting on my part… Hope you've enjoyed the longest thing I've ever written (in one setting that is) and please review!

Love,

Ana


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